Do You Have To Pay Rent If They Refuse To Repair

If your landlord does non make repairs after you have either notified her in writing or she has been ordered by the Lath of Health to make repairs, you may need to consider other options:

Withhold Hire
Repair and Deduct
Organize
Break Your Charter
Become to Court

Once you lot inform yourself of the options, you may want to consult with a tenant advocacy organization or lawyer (encounter Directory).

1. Withhold Rent

Ane way to get your landlord to gear up bad conditions is to withhold all or some of your rent until the landlord really makes the repairs. This is called "hire withholding."⁴⁴

Tenants have a right to withhold rent because landlords are obligated to provide rubber and habitable housing under the warranty of habitability. If a landlord breaks this obligation, a tenant'due south obligation to pay the full amount of rent stops until repairs are made.⁴⁵ A tenant may want to withhold all or function of the rent, depending on the seriousness of the violations.⁴⁶ The law does non state how much or for how long you can withhold.

If yous are considering withholding your rent, information technology is very of import that you do it correct. Earlier yous begin to withhold, read the next sections in this chapter very advisedly. Employ the sample Rent Withholding Letter (Grade 12).

Note

If yous are living in a hotel or motel or have lived in a rooming house for less than 3 consecutive months, yous practice non have the right to withhold your rent to get the landlord to make repairs. For more information about the rights of rooming house tenants, come across Affiliate 15: Rooming Houses.

a. When Can You Withhold Rent

Before y'all tin can withhold hire, you lot must see certain requirements.⁴⁷ If you tin can answer yes to all five of the questions below, y'all have met these requirements and can legally withhold your rent.

	Yep	NO
Do lacking weather exist in your apartment?		
Exercise these weather "endanger or materially impair" the health, safety, or well-being of anyone living in the dwelling house? (See Housing Code Checklist (Booklet 2)).		
Does the landlord know well-nigh the defective weather condition (and know this earlier yous were behind in your rent)?		
Were the weather acquired by someone or something other than yourself or someone under your control (such as a invitee or a member of the household)?		
Can your landlord brand repairs without y'all having to permanently move out?		

If you respond yes to all five questions, yous can legally withhold your rent and your landlord cannot adios you—although she may attempt. If a landlord tries to evict you lot and you have properly withheld your rent, your landlord may exist violating other laws. Come across Affiliate 12: Evictions - Retaliatory Evictions.

b. Withholding Gives Y'all the Ability to Negotiate

Rent withholding is the well-nigh direct mode that you can force your landlord to make repairs. More often than not, information technology is besides the near successful tactic. It is specially successful in a edifice where tenants agree to join together to withhold their hire. Meet Chapter ten: Getting Organized about how to organize a rent withholding campaign.

While you are withholding rent, y'all are in a improve position to negotiate with the landlord nigh what y'all desire. Some of the issues that yous tin can negotiate include:

• The date when the landlord volition starting time and complete repairs,
• How much rent you will pay (or withhold) while repairs are existence completed, and
• How much of the withheld hire you will return (if any) once repairs are properly completed.

c. Protect Yourself When You Withhold

The correct to withhold does not mean that you have a right to live in your flat hire-free. Rent withholding is a fashion to go the landlord to make repairs. One time a landlord makes repairs, you must resume paying rent.

The best way to protect yourself while you are withholding rent is to have your rent money and set information technology aside in a bank account split from any other bank account that y'all accept. (Practice not go on greenbacks in your apartment.) Although the law does not require you to put your rent in a banking company, in that location are several reasons why this is a skilful idea.

• Beginning, if your landlord tries to evict you, you can testify the courtroom that y'all had the money to pay rent and you did not simply stop paying considering you were unable to pay. Setting up a split banking concern account will too strengthen your case and give you more than credibility in the eyes of a gauge if you take the landlord to courtroom or the landlord attempts to adios you lot.
• Second, if a judge eventually orders y'all to pay some or all of the withheld rent to the landlord, you volition have this money available. If you don't pay, you lot can be evicted. It is very unusual that a judge would observe that the conditions are so bad that you would be entitled to withhold all (100%) of your rent, which is why information technology is and so important to have that rent money fix aside.

Note

Legally, one time your landlord makes repairs, you exercise not automatically have to requite the landlord back any of the rent you lot have withheld. Only a judge can club y'all to practise this. You may decide to proceed some or all of the rent you withheld because of the impact these weather condition had on your employ of the apartment. If your landlord decides to take you lot to court to go back the withheld rent, explain to the guess how the conditions affected you lot and your family. Depending on the situation, a judge may make up one's mind you lot can keep role or all of the withheld rent.⁴⁸ To try to avoid courtroom and eviction, you can also negotiate with the landlord to effort to agree on a fair sum to be given to the landlord for the period when you lot lived with the bad conditions.

d. Exist Prepared for How Your Landlord May React

While y'all take a legal right to withhold rent, your landlord may attempt to evict yous. The best way to protect yourself against eviction is to make sure you:

• Document the bad atmospheric condition,
• See all the requirements for withholding rent. For more information come across When Can Yous Withhold Rent,
• Eolith your rent in a banking concern, and
• Utilize the sample Rent Withholding Letter (Form 12) to notify your landlord near the bad weather condition.

A copy of a housing inspection report that accurately describes code violations is the all-time way to document violations of the state Sanitary Code. Information technology is also proof that the landlord knew most the weather condition.⁴⁹ Again, if you have a camera or video camera (or tin can infringe one), have pictures of the bad atmospheric condition ideally with a appointment and fourth dimension postage stamp. If you lot print out the pictures write the date and time they were taken on the back of the picture. A good picture volition be worth a thousand words if you lot demand to bear witness that bad weather exist.

If a landlord wants to adios you, she must go to court and get permission from a estimate. If a judge finds that you take followed all the requirements under the rent-withholding law, you will take a legal defense to the eviction.⁵⁰ This ways a judge should not give the landlord permission to evict you and you can stay in your dwelling house. You may also have a legal claim against her for coin damages. See Chapter 12: Evictions for more about evictions and Affiliate 13: When to Take Your Landlord to Courtroom for more information virtually other legal claims.

A judge may also lodge you to pay an amount called the fair rental value to the court. The off-white rental value is the value of your apartment with all its problems and code violations⁵¹ (run across box post-obit this department). If a guess orders yous to pay money to the court, ask the judge also to society the landlord to set up all defective weather. Ideally, you want the court to hold onto your rent money until a landlord has made repairs. Although a court can decide to give your landlord permission to use the money you lot pay to the court to make repairs, you can ask the judge to concord a hearing before returning this money to the landlord.⁵² This will requite you a take chances to tell the judge if the landlord has fixed any of the problems.

At the cease of an eviction case, if a approximate finds that, because of code violations, your landlord owes you the aforementioned amount every bit or more money than yous owe her, yous win the instance and tin stay in your flat. If, on the other manus, the court finds that yous owe the landlord money, you can stay in your apartment only if yous pay the amount you owe to the courtroom. (This is why it is of import to ready aside your rent money—so if a judge says yous owe money, y'all tin pay and stay.) You must pay this corporeality to the court within 7 days of receiving a detect from the court near the amount due.⁵³ If you do not, y'all can be evicted. The courtroom may also require y'all to pay certain court costs.⁵⁴

Determining Fair Rental Value: An Example

Because your stove doesn't work, your toilet is broken, water leaks through the ceiling, and the landlord refuses to give you a smoke detector, yous withhold all of your rent. Your rent is $900 per calendar month.

Before you lot start to withhold, yous notify your landlord in writing about all of these conditions and get a housing inspection study. You lot likewise put your rent coin aside in the bank.

After 3 months of withholding hire(a full of $2,700), your landlord decides to try to evict you instead of making repairs. She files an eviction instance in court based on nonpayment of rent. Later hearing both sides of the case, a approximate finds that you properly withheld your rent. The judge also finds that during the iii months you withheld your rent, the fair rental value of your apartment with all of the lawmaking violations was $450 per month, equally opposed to the $900 per calendar month that you lot were existence charged.

The court will then send yous a notice saying you owe $1,350 for the 3 months you withheld rent plus court costs. If you lot pay this amount to the court within 7 days of receiving this detect, you tin can stay in your domicile. Y'all also get to go on the other $1,350 yous withheld.

If y'all do not pay the $1,350 plus court costs inside the 7 days, the landlord is entitled to evict y'all. This is why it is so important to set the hire bated in a separate bank account.

2. Repair and Deduct

Under certain conditions, tenants in Massachusetts have the legal right to brand repairs and deduct up to 4 months' hire to pay for them.⁵⁵ This is referred to equally "repair and deduct." The advantage of choosing to repair and deduct is that the repairs get done. The disadvantage is that y'all are taking responsibility for making certain that the repairs are washed well. See the sample Repair and Deduct Letter (Class 13).

a. When Tin You Repair and Deduct

To exist able to deduct the cost of repairs from your rent, sure conditions must be met. If you can answer yes to all five questions beneath, y'all can repair and deduct.

	YES	NO
Are there violations that "endanger or materially impair" the health, rubber, or well-being of a tenant that have beencertified by a housing inspector or that a court finds be?		
Have you given the landlord or her agent written find of the violations?		
Did the landlord fail to substantially complete repairs within 14 days after this written notice, or within such shorter fourth dimension if ordered by a housing inspector?		
Were the atmospheric condition caused past someone or something other than yourself or someone under your control (such equally a guest or a member of the household)?		
Accept you given your landlord access to your dwelling house to make repairs?		

b. What Can You Repair

You lot are immune by police force to repair anything in your apartment or in the common areas of your edifice. If there are violations that bear on several apartments or an entire building, a group of tenants can gather and have the repairs made. Make sure, even so, that everyone is in agreement, that you have a certified Lath of Wellness study documenting the bug, and that you have given your landlord written find of the violations. Each and every tenant can then deduct up to 4 months' hire for her share of the total.

For example, you lot and other tenants may get the boiler in your building stock-still, and so all affected tenants can afterwards deduct upward to 4 months of rent, depending on how much the repair cost.

c. How Much Can Yous Deduct

Under the law, you may deduct merely a total of 4 months' rent in any 12-calendar month period. You cannot store up months of withheld rent over several years and then deduct more than 4 months' rent in a single twelvemonth. If you make up one's mind to repair and deduct, save all bills and receipts for materials and labor as proof of your costs. Remember: When you make the repair, you are taking responsibleness for making sure it's done correct. When you hire someone to exercise the repairs, ask what complications or risks there may be in doing the repair. It is also a good thought to go a reference for anyone you hire and a few estimates for the piece of work so you can show the toll of the person you lot rent is reasonable

d. What If the Landlord Thinks Yous Deducted As well Much

If a landlord feels that you deducted too much for repairs, she is allowed to get to courtroom to try and go back some of this money. The law does not, however, allow your landlord to evict you if the court believes that yous have deducted too much rent.⁵⁷ It is also illegal for landlords to raise your rent for repairs you legally made under the repair and deduct statute, unless at that place is a court order permitting a rent increase.⁵⁸

If your landlord does take y'all to court to try to get dorsum possible backlog rent deductions, do not ignore the court detect. To show that the deductions were excessive, the landlord will take to show that the deductions were for more than 4 months' hire during a 12-month period, or were unreasonable given the circumstances. In deciding if deductions were unreasonable, a estimate will await to see what alternatives the tenant had at the fourth dimension the violations were first reported, how urgent the repairs were, and the quality and cost of the work done.⁵⁹

Repairs for minor code violations, such every bit screens, small leaks, or pocket-sized holes in the walls, will probably not exist found reasonable past the court unless at that place are so many of them that you can prove that the overall effect is dangerous.^lx This is difficult to do.

3. Organize

If other tenants in your building or community face bad conditions, at that place are means to piece of work together to ameliorate everyone'southward living conditions. Tenants tin can all agree to withhold rent until the landlord makes repairs. A group of tenants can ask a estimate to guild the landlord to make repairs. If the landlord absolutely refuses to fix the bad weather condition, tenants can ask a court to appoint a temporary landlord chosen a receiver in order to make repairs. For more see department in this chapter called Receivership. Tenants can too organize and together put pressure on the local Board of Wellness to inspect their apartments and enforce the state Sanitary Code and local health ordinances.

Chapter x: Getting Organized gives you lot information almost how to begin to organize tenants. It volition also give you specific organizing steps you can take to get repairs fabricated.

4. Break Your Charter

When there are very serious violations of the Sanitary Code in your flat and you feel you must motion, the constabulary allows you to break your lease. If you practice not accept a charter, you lot tin leave without giving the usual 30-day notice (or whatever notice may be required in your situation) to the landlord. You are allowed to break your lease or move out without giving the usual notice considering the landlord has violated her obligation to provide a habitable apartment under the warranty of habitability.⁶¹

If you move out early, your landlord may endeavour to sue you for moving early on and for the balance of the rent due under any lease. For this reason, before you lot motion out, it is wise to obtain a Board of Health report as proof of the violations in your flat.

Continue in mind

If violations are not serious, you may be held responsible for paying the rent if y'all leave without proper notice.

When y'all move out considering of serious violations, y'all are entitled to get back your security eolith. If you have to go to court to go your deposit back, yous might have to evidence that the conditions in your apartment were severe plenty to permit your leaving. For more information about getting security deposits back and moving out, see Affiliate 3: Security Deposits and Terminal Month's Hire and Chapter 11: Moving Out.

5. Become to Court

If your landlord refuses to brand repairs, you tin have her to courtroom. The court has the power to do a number of things. A judge can:

• Club your landlord to make repairs,
• Social club your landlord to pay you money for the harm that you have suffered,
• Appoint a receiver: a person or organization appointed by the court to manage and fix upward the property (see section in this chapter chosen Receivership)⁶² ,
• Fine your landlord or put your landlord in jail for violating the constabulary.

There are primarily four types of complaints that yous tin file with the court to need that a landlord brand repairs:

1. Tenant Petition;
2. Emergency Injunction, also chosen a Temporary Restraining Order;
3. Criminal Complaint;
4. Ceremonious Complaint.

a. Tenant Petition

Tenants tin can inquire a judge to lodge their landlord to repair atmospheric condition that violate the country Sanitary Code (or local health ordinance, if it is stricter). This is called a tenant petition.⁶³ See the sample Tenant Petition for Enforcement of the State Germ-free Lawmaking (Form xiv). When y'all file a tenant petition, a gauge can:

• Gild the landlord to make repairs, or
• Appoint a temporary landlord called a receiver to make repairs.

The benefits of bringing a tenant petition are that information technology may exist a safe mode for y'all to get repairs fabricated without having to withhold rent and the court filing fee is low.⁶⁴ If you withhold your rent, y'all may have to go to court to defend yourself against an eviction. If you file a tenant petition, you lot—not your landlord—are bringing the matter before a estimate. A tenant petition too puts you in a better position to negotiate what you desire with the landlord. For more near negotiating, see Chapter fourteen: Using the Court System - Negotiating a Good Settlement and Affiliate x: Getting Organized - Negotiating a Solution with the Landlord.

When you lot file a tenant petition, a guess also has the power to brand certain other decisions. A judge may decide that until your landlord makes repairs, your rent should be lowered to the off-white rental value of your apartment. The fair rental value is the value of your home with all of its problems. A gauge tin can require you to pay this corporeality to the court clerk (in addition to any past rent you lot accept withheld or owe) while the landlord makes repairs.⁶⁵ Ideally, you lot want the courtroom to hold onto this money until the landlord makes repairs, so that the landlord has some incentive to go them done. A judge tin can, all the same, release this money to your landlord for purposes of making repairs.⁶⁶

Note

A judge also has the power in a tenant petition to order the Board of Wellness to condemn a very dangerous building. This could lead to tenants' evictions.⁶⁷ (For more than about condemnations, see What If Your Edifice Is Condemned in this affiliate.)

b. Emergency Injunction

If you want a judge to order your landlord to make emergency repairs, you lot can file a complaint and ask a courtroom to issue an injunction.⁶⁸ An injunction is an order from the courtroom that tells your landlord to take immediate action to right a problem or to stop doing something that is illegal. For instance, a judge can guild your landlord to immediately prepare the heating arrangement.

In about cases, tenants request an emergency order chosen a temporary restraining order or TRO when they first go to courtroom and file the complaint. Because this is an emergency, you lot may request a TRO without get-go notifying the landlord. Come across a Temporary Restraining Club (Course xv).
Or endeavor the MassAccess interactive interview, Complaint for a Temporary Restraining Order, that lets you complete, review, sign and transport your request for a Temporary Restraining Order to the court from your smart phone or computer.

If a judge gives y'all a TRO, it is expert for only a curt menses of fourth dimension—the maximum is 10 days. If you need an society to last longer than 10 days, you must ask the court to schedule another hearing where you lot tin asking what is chosen a preliminary injunction. A preliminary injunction is an society that tin cover a longer menstruation of time. If y'all apply Form 15, you can ask for a hearing for a preliminary injunction at the same time you inquire for a TRO.

If you get a TRO from the judge, take a copy of it to a sheriff's or constable's function immediately. A sheriff or lawman must serve information technology on your landlord. A TRO is non skillful unless your landlord has knowledge of it. If your landlord refuses to obey a TRO, you should become back to court and tell the judge. If a judge finds that your landlord has not obeyed the TRO, the landlord may exist held in contempt and can be arrested and fined.

When you file the complaint to seek a TRO and preliminary injunction, you lot will also need to pay the filing and service fees. If you lot cannot beget these fees, you can ask the courtroom to waive or eliminate the filing fee and to pay the service fee. To exercise this utilise the Affidavit of Indigency course (Booklet nine).

c. Criminal Complaint

If your landlord refuses to brand repairs, you lot can file an application for criminal complaint (and pay the filing fee) or ask the Board of Health to file an awarding for a criminal complaint. You can exercise this at the same time you pursue other strategies. Because it tin can have several weeks for a court to schedule a hearing for a criminal complaint, this strategy does not usually produce a quick result. A criminal complaint can, however, result in a landlord having to pay a fine or spend fourth dimension in jail. The advantages of a criminal action over a civil activeness are:

• It may put more pressure on the landlord to make repairs.
• If the Board of Wellness brings the criminal complaint, you may not take to get to court considering the inspector tin can present all the necessary evidence.

The major disadvantage of a criminal action is that you lose control over the instance. The Assistant District Attorney or the Metropolis's Attorney will prosecute the instance. You lot or your lawyer exercise not control the day-to-day direction of the accommodate. As well, y'all must be willing and able to appear in court, sometimes on a week-to-calendar week basis, if you lot are the person bringing the complaint. You may get quicker results if yous file a ceremonious complaint or a tenant petition.

At that place are two kinds of criminal cases that tenants can bring against landlords who fail to repair Germ-free Code violations. The first is where the landlord fails to comply with the Germ-free Code.⁶⁹ You or the Board of Health may bring this kind of complaint.⁷⁰ Fines for violations of the state Sanitary Code can range from $10 to $500 a twenty-four hours.⁷¹

The second type of example is where the landlord fails to provide heat, hot h2o, or other utilities or interferes with your tranquillity enjoyment. Just tenants who are affected by the landlord'southward illegal beliefs can file this type of criminal complaint. To bring this blazon of complaint, you exercise not need a Lath of Health inspection, although it is very helpful. In addition to fining your landlord, a judge can also judgement a landlord to serve up to 6 months in jail for violation of the law of quiet enjoyment.

d. Civil Complaint

If a landlord refuses to repair code violations, tenants can file a civil complaint or a small claims lawsuit. A small claims case is a ceremonious lawsuit that involves no more than than $vii,000.⁷² In a civil complaint, yous bring a lawsuit against your landlord for money for the harm that yous have suffered or are suffering considering of code violations; and you tin can as well ask the estimate to issue an injunction (see section called Emergency Injunction). Y'all tin can also appoint a receiver (run into section chosen Receivership). If y'all bring a ceremonious lawsuit against your landlord because she has failed to make repairs, at that place are primarily 6 types of legal claims you can include:

• Breach of Warranty of Habitability,
• Breach of Repose Enjoyment,
• Unfair and Deceptive Practices,
• Negligence,
• Infliction of Emotional Distress,
• Nuisance.

Each of these legal claims is described in Chapter thirteen: When to Take Your Landlord to Court. As you read, y'all may observe that your landlord has violated other laws. Before you decide to bring a lawsuit against your landlord, you need to advisedly evaluate the forcefulness of your case.

Source: https://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/problems/getting-landlord-make-repairs/refusing-repairs

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